Posted
by
samzenpuson Monday July 26, 2010 @01:03PM
from the no-reward dept.

Usually there is nothing funny about a missing pet, but the tale of Missy the lost cat is hilarious. It serves as an example of just how clueless your fellow employees can be, and why you should never ask the designers to drop what they're doing, and help with a personal matter.

Rather than report on the missy one why not report on one of the stories far more relevant to Slashdot [27bslash6.com] (Open Source, discipline without thinking etc.) which is arguably funnier because the teacher is more deserving of the treatment and which is brilliant at the end in that it might have actually reminded the teacher what is really important.

Because, perhaps, his web host is about as friendly about bandwidth as he is friendly about cat owners? Slashdotting, ftl. Now I can't see what else that raging asshole has to say about people that annoy him but apparently hold enough consequence for him to prepare some VERY lengthy responses, AND keep them all catalogged on a web site.

Golf clap. Us un-creative peons would just *ignore* the annoying people.

Look at his first reply, about the cat possibly being lying injured somewhere - what a pointlessy cruel and horrible thing to say. The owner of the cat is most likely upset enough without this moron winding her up with a comment along the lines of "oh hahaha isn't it funny, your cat is probably lying hurt and needing help lol". No, it's not funny.I get the idea that he's trying to hit back at people trying to "waste his time" by asking him to do freebies. So, why did he waste over a day tormenting the ow

No, there isn't a difference between, "I want something for free", and "I want something for free because it's really really important.". The problem with this reasoning is that for some people, the barrier for really, really important is set really, really low.

I agree that the GP shouldn't have been modded troll though, not because it's true, but because it looks like a heartfelt sentiment.

I can't believe you're asking that. The difference is night and day and, truth be told, I doubt you're heartless or stupid enough to reallly need me to explain it.

This is similar to the idea of a hobo walking into McDonald's and saying "I want something for free" and "HELP I haven't eaten in days!!" Either way, they'll get shot down.

No, it's not. It's more like the difference between some guy in a suit coming up to McD's and saying "gimme a free burger and I'll tell everybody it's great" and "I haven't eaten in days, can I have one of those burgers you're about to throw away?" Having worked at McDonald's, I can tell you that the homeless do sometimes get free food. The man

The idiot in the exchange is more likely a smug IT sociopath who fancies himself a "designer" because he's the only wonk in his small dysfunctional company with the cracked copy of Photoshop and the free time on endless weekends home alone to spend learning enough about it not to electrocute himself when scaling a photograph.

He's a mechanic, at best. He clearly lacks the grace to be a legit professional designer.

The idiot in the exchange is more likely a smug IT sociopath who fancies himself a "designer" because he's the only wonk in his small dysfunctional company with the cracked copy of Photoshop and the free time on endless weekends home alone to spend learning enough about it not to electrocute himself when scaling a photograph.

Why would an IT guy pretend to be a graphics designer? My impression was in the business world graphics designers are pretty much low men/women on the totem pole. The secretary pro

You are not thinking long-term. He didn't waste his time. He prevented her, and the dozens of others she will whine about him to, from ever even thinking about wasting his time in the future. Remember, a little bit of effort put into being an asshole now can save countless hours of people bothering you in the future!

Yep I never understood the point of this other than pointless cruelty.

Because it's not pointless cruelty, it's a rather... extended manner of telling people that his skills aren't worthless. People (particularly businesspeople) are to quick to assume that artistic work is simple and worthless (fun fact: simplicity and minimalism are more difficult than complexity).

You're paying for the talent and skill I've been developing since birth, not necessarily just my time. Just like I pay you a cut for the talent and skill for business and networking that you've been developing since birth, regardless of whether the sale took a minute or a week. By the way, do mind you selling my livingroom furniture for me? Oh, yeah, can do it for free? You're a businessperson, so it'll be be easy for you!

I get that all the time. I either explain I'm a programmer and don't really deal with that sort of stuff, or I give them a hand if it's something simple and I have the time.

There's no need to be a dick about it.

In that case, sure. Computer repair can be quite tricky depending on the problem. But needing the help of a designer to create a simple document with a picture and a couple lines of text? Really? You could accomplish your task with a sheet of paper, some tape, and a marker. Things any secretary has easy access to. Why waste other people's work time with something as trivial as that?

Because it's not pointless cruelty, it's a rather... extended manner of telling people that his skills aren't worthless. People (particularly businesspeople) are to quick to assume that artistic work is simple and worthless (fun fact: simplicity and minimalism are more difficult than complexity).

If his skills were worthless she wouldn't have asked him to help. And she wasn't asking for anything that requires a degree of incredible artistic talent, just a picture of a cat, and LOST CAT down at the bottom

so, it is a huge waste of time for an 'artist' to put a few copy/pastes in photoshop, to create a printable poster for a missing cat then. the cat, which may be injured, or needing help, or scared somewhere. an entity which is part of a certain family, and a factor of the love in that family in their own home.

so, apparently, his skill is SO not worthless that, he takes the time to insult and shit about it, like a prickly bastard.

so, it is a huge waste of time for an 'artist' to put a few copy/pastes in photoshop, to create a printable poster for a missing cat then. the cat, which may be injured, or needing help, or scared somewhere. an entity which is part of a certain family, and a factor of the love in that family in their own home.

Yes. I'm a computer programmer, and even I can fire up Word and create a simple poster for my missing cat.

you are a computer programmer. YOU can create a simple poster for your missing cat. ALL people cant do it. there is nothing fucking wrong about helping people those who cant. EVEN if they are not able to do it at that moment because they are panicking.

however there is something grandly wrong about being a fucking prick about one's own skill to that extent.

"This is the only photo of her I have she answers to the name Missy and is black and white and about 8 months old."

Cats don't answer to names.

While I'm sure you're joking, cats actually do tend to respond well to sibilant names. So in this case, "Missy" is a name a cat is likely to respond to.

Googling around at work didn't yield any articles that were both in support of my claim and cited other sources, so you'll have to perform the research yourself. I've had many cats over the years, and this seems like a reasonable observation to me. A good relationship with your cat and reasonable training usually means the cat will respond to whatever its na

Actually, both dogs and cats have shown to respond to rather large human vocabularies. The average dog, on average, is smarter than the average cat. Just the same there are plentiful examples of the smarter than average dog or cat be considerably more so. Furthermore, recent research indicates the average dog is smarter than a three year old human and cats somewhere around a two year old.

Even a visit to YouTube can show you that not only do cats hear phonetics, its possible for them to push their vocal rang

Intelligence is not a sign of physical prowess or instinctive behavior. I suspect such an effort gives rise to the "herding cats" cliche. Furthermore, I believe the dog has also been domesticated longer than has the cat.

You've obviously never owned a cat. I can sit there talking at my cat loudly while he's sleeping (I know, I know - what the hell is wrong with me?), and he won't move or open his eyes at all. The second I say "Norman", even quietly, his head perks up and he looks at me. I know it's just the combination of sounds that he's used to hearing, being associated with me petting or feeding him - but he definitely answers to it, sometimes with a MOW.

Ha - sounds like the two extremes of cat personalities. I stand corrected. I prefer the first type (same kind I have), except when I'm trying to sleep - he craves attention, i.e. sitting on the face of sleeping people.

I figured it was a fake based on the content, but the subject lines recursively adding "Re:", like "Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Poster" clinched it. My cat does look at me with utter disinterest when I call her name.

If someone walked up to you at work and called out "marvin!" despite that not being your name, would you give it more than a passing glance? No? Ok, let's move on. Try this next time you see your cat: say name, offer treat. Wait 5 minutes and repeat, alternate between treat and petting or playing with a toy. Any animal with ears and an attention span can learn a "name" if provided with the right motivation. Did you expect your cat to be attached to you for the scintillating conversations the two of y

Some definitely react when you say their name, some cats come trotting over when you call them.

Whether it's that they identify with the word and know you're talking about them, or they merely associate you saying that word with you giving them food or attention and as a consequence of that become more alert, or they just notice the tone of voice and you looking at them, I don't know. Animal behavior is often difficult to understand. Most cats don't seem to do that in my experience.

RubyJakeFuzzAliceBugPatchesJJand they all answer to their name. Now 50% of the time they could care less about interacting with you if they are in some king of search/investigative/attack mode. But if they are not in those modes they do react to their names and only to their names, other cats will not respond to a different cats name. DO they actually think its their name? Well probably not but I'm sure the sound of each name could be a meow sound specific to their own ears.

Despite being incredibly funny (to the point of an uncomfortably loud outburst in an otherwise quiet office) I have to think that those two would make quite the couple. She didn't seem to badger the designer about the poster, she sent just one brief email that he could have ignored as easily as he no doubt ignores all the others. Although it was a project that would take a complete amateur no more than 5 minutes to perfect in MS Word, and a "pro" probably 10 minutes out of insistence on plodding through Frame Maker or Illustrator to achieve the same thing, the designer is understandably upset that his workload is going up. Good thing he decided to carry out 5 design projects, all off-spec, in order to spite her for asking for one very simple thing.

While I am guessing that this exchange is made up... it is a good illustration of why I someday hope to get out of the computer industry. While I love the work, I have encountered way to many people like this fictional designer that relish the fact that they are in a sufficient position of power to be asshats to those around them. I know the basic behavior is pretty universal, but it seems to be worst in technical fields..

Because there are at least five highly intelligent people here, and the several hundred who have listed me as friend must have some willingness to listen to unorthodox opinions that almost certainly differ from their own.

Now, admittedly, the readership of Slashdot is closer to 100,000, making the percentage of potentially civilized people rather small in comparison.

However, given that you could only half-fill a remote Alpine village with all the truly civilized, courteous yet self-respecting, intelligent pe

Perhaps, as in Dinner for Schmucks, we just keep people with "unorthodox opinions" around for sheer amusement value?;-)

Look, people (myself included) are jerks that almost always fail to consider the effect their actions have on others before acting. The signal to noise ratio is abysmal on the internet, and only marginally better on slashdot. You either get used to dealing with sociopaths, or you just stay away from them. But whining about them accomplishes nothing.

One of the reasons my posts tend to be long (and slow to type) is that I try to keep the communication as clear as I can, within the limits of my ability. (And my former English teachers would tell you exactly how limited they thought that ability to be.) A major reason I stick with Slashdot is that even if I am kept around as the modern version of the court jester, I am tolerated and can even persuade myself that people appreciate my views here. That simply is not, and never has been, the case anywhere els

No, in this fictional story, the asshat is clearly the villain of the piece.

When I first read it awhile back, that's what I thought was the intent. The "haha, let's make fun of the idiot graphical designer" story sort of fell apart when I read his other stories, which seemed to be more about "I'll prove how cool I am by pranking other people."

To be fair, I think that computer-centric people tend to get asked for free work more often that most other professions. Probably for two reasons:1. It usually involves minimal physical labor, which people are less likely to expect for free.2. Many people apparently think doing anything on the computer requires but a few mouse clicks before the machine does all the work for you.

The correct response to this is not being an asshole, but still, I can understand the urge to be impolite.

People who are taking this seriously - Do you really believe that someone snowed under with work would spend so long composing email responses, or spend so much of his time putting together silly posters?

Do you really think that the woman asking wouldn't have got the hint and done it herself? Or even if she didn't, she might have talked to someone else who would have explained things?

It is amazing the amount of time assholes will spend on being assholes. They can be pressed for time to get their work done, yet find plenty of time to be dicks to people since they take pleasure from it.

Now this doesn't mean that this case isn't made up, but I could certainly see it being real. It follows asshole logic (such as it were) perfectly:

--Spend 10 minutes helping you: WASTE of time! How could I waste so much time on something that gets me nothing when I'm so busy!

Do you really believe that someone snowed under with work would spend so long composing email responses, or spend so much of his time putting together silly posters?

It's quite possible that he wasn't super-busy at the time, but had in the past been frequently pestered by her (and others) for graphic design "favors". She could have spent 5 (or 2) minutes in Word and made her own, and instead decided to waste his time. So, being a complete dick to her (if it's not fiction) sends the message that not only is

I assumed that this was fiction based on the kind of things that do happen in real life and then exaggerated to humourous effect. Are we supposed to think this really happened and that the Thorne guy really delights in being so nasty to stupid people? Who in reality would waste so much time on something like this?

To the very first email his response contains this sentence: "I am surprised you managed to attend work at all what with thinking about Missy out there cold, frightened and alone... possibly lying on the side of the road, her back legs squashed by a vehicle, calling out "Shannon, where are you?"

Yes, she was a bit silly to engage with an obvious asshole. I wonder if at some time in the future he has a daughter who is late and not home, and the ultimate irony, she had gone out with her friend, the daughter

so you can get the gist. Once again, the site is http://www.27bslash6.com/ [27bslash6.com] , I personally like it, but not everyone will, or should.

___________RiddickWhile watching the movie 'Chronicles of Riddick' together last night, my offspring stated that he wished Riddick was his dad. When I asked why, he replied that Riddick is good looking, has muscles and is a good fighter. I told him that I wished Matthew (his arch-enemy at school) was my son because he is better at maths and has cool hair.___________One thousand charactersWriting rubbish on the internet amuses me a lot. There is often a limit of 1000 characters per post so every story (including punctuation, spaces, introduction, proposal, argument and punch line) has to be within a small paragraph.Sometimes I just write nonsense and other times I write something rather insensitive to evoke angry responses.When I was just fourteen, I was given the task of drowning kittens by my girlfriend's mother. I filled a large laundry sink with room temperature water and held the eight kittens under. As each kitten died and sank to the bottom, it turned and rested 'snuggled' to the previous. I put them in a garbage bag and was carrying it out when the bag moved and I heard a meow. I opened the bag and found one kitten had survived. So I drowned it again.And that is an exact one thousand.____________Also, don't miss the Chatroulette one: http://www.27bslash6.com/chat.html [27bslash6.com]

I actually had an anesthesiologist ask me for tech support on his XP install while he was sedating my wife as she was delivering my second child. I asked him if I would get free anesthesiology if I gave him free tech support, and he got the hint.

A more professional approach (and one that I have used many times) would be, "here's my business card; why don't you call to set up an appointment?" Or, far more germane to your story (I'm not sure why you allowed this anesthesiologist to continue working on your wife if he had the poor judgement to ask about anything -- ANYTHING -- not medically-related while he was providing acute health care), "right now we're busy taking care of something else, why don't we discuss it at a more appropriate time?"

But it is a great example of most graphic designers I know. They have far more free time than they will ever admit. Far, far too much free time. "Meeting a client." is almost always a code phrase for "I'm sorry, but I'm already drunk.".